I don't get it. I don't understand the thought processes of people who would cut taxes for the wealthy and pay for it by cutting medicaid, medicare, food stamps, health care and education (including student loan interest rates), while increasing spending on the military. Let's make it harder on poor people, women, seniors, college students and the middle class while the wealthy bask in their mansions and on their yachts. Let's put thousands of government employees who deliver needed services out of work, so they can pay less taxes, buy less food, and generally spend less money in our struggling economy.  How does this make sense in any universe?

So what has Rep. Kay Granger been up to this week? Where is her moral compass? This week she voted to repeal a 2.3 excise tax on the makers and importers of certain medical devices. This tax was part of the expected revenue to fund the Affordable Healthcare Act, a vote to gut the President's health care plan. What does Kay have against affordable health care for everyone?  She voted against an amendment (obviously by a Democrat) that would keep the tax in place for companies that send American jobs overseas. It would appear that she would rather see American jobs lost than American jobs created. She voted against another Democratic amendment that would take 1% on a bill that would appropriate $32.1 billion for military and civilian energy programs and apply the savings to deficit reduction. The Republicans talk a good game about deficit reduction, but only when those reductions are applied to programs that actually help people. And that's not all! She voted against another amendment that would cap a program to upgrade our nuclear arsenal at $7 billion. The savings could also be applied to deficit reduction. Not done yet. Kay also voted to fund a program that would allow local law enforcement to enforce immigration law in some 100 communities. Can you imagine the racial profiling to which that would lead? And don't local police have enough to do without enforcing federal law, which is probably unconstitutional as well? By that reasoning we should let the FBI and CIA enforce local law. I'm not done yet! She also voted against and amendment that would transfer funds from detaining illegal immigrants to the budget charged with stopping sex trafficking and other forms of child exploitation. Who says the Republicans have the higher moral compass? Not according to votes Kay Granger cast on the above issues.

What did Kay Granger do last week?  She voted for a bill that would have imposed criminal and civil penalties on doctors who perform abortions THOUGHT to based on gender of the fetus. Last time I looked, abortions are legal, but some folks just can't seem to handle that. Has anyone ever heard of a doctor performing an abortion because the mom didn't like the gender of the fetus? A Republican lady at the Romney event called me names. Shame on her. Kay also voted for $80 billion dollars for intelligence agencies. Most everyone else did too. She also received over $40 thousand dollars to vote on a pharmaceutical company bill authorizing the user fees on companies seeking approval of new brand-name and generic drugs. I'm not sure what this means. I guess it means that drug companies can charge you and me more when a new drug is introduced. I guess that's the governments way of guaranteeing the drug companies profit. What is that about? Kay also voted to appropriate $60 billion for the Veteran Affairs Dept. I don't have a problem with that, but I noticed no one seemed interested in how it was going to be funded, unlike the student loan interest rate bill that both have rejected each others bill because of the funding mechanism. There seems to be little or no common sense in Congress.

Good God! I blew it today. Attended the Romney event in Euless with Steve Maxwell, Keith and several other democrats. Max and Keith had prepared statements, but I wasn't planning on addressing the press. Had the opportunity, but wasn't ready in my head, so I let a golden opportunity for some free publicity pass. Way to go Dave! Also left my sign in the car. It said, "Flip Flops belong on feet, not in the White House." Had a graphic caricature of Romney and clip art sandals. It was a good sign, but when I got to the event, I didn't see any other dems, so decided to leave it in the car. There was a time when I wouldn't have even hesitated. I got to get my groove on!

Kay Granger won her primary. She says, "I will continue to stand up for the values that make our community great, That means creating jobs in our community , keeping our C130's in Fort Worth, cutting spending and protecting our national defense." How generic can you get. And how many jobs has she helped create, with American Airlines laying off folks? We all want to see jobs created; we all want to keep the 4 C130s; we all want to cut spending (she just wants to cut spending for the folks who need it the most), and we all want a good, strong defense. The problem there is she wants to spend money on items the military says it doesn't need. The Star Telegram says she never even comes close to being defeated. Maybe because she has a gerrymandered district? Duh!